… (2) the positioning of colonial Burma as a place of incarceration for Indian revolutionaries who diffused Gandhian-inspired tactics across Burmese jails, and (3) inspirational models and tactics provided by Irish nationalists in the 1920s. Comments most welcome, as ever | 4/4
My findings indicate that, in an age of empire, three factors proved key to the introduction and dissemination of such protest tactics in the Burmese context: (1) networks of well-travelled Buddhist monks who acted as brokers (as Tim Harper’s *Global Revolutionaries*)... | 3/4
Through a critical reading of archives produced by the colonial state, I examined how the British imperial authorities assessed, understood, and responded to the gradual deployment of political fasts across the Burmese province during the 1920s-1930s | 2/4
Newly published with @SEAsiaResearch, my study of how hunger strikes were introduced and adapted into the contentious politics of late colonial #Burma | doi.org/10.1080/0967828X.2026.2618224 | 1/4
Yes! Although Burmese hunger strikers have often referred to fasts performed by Gandhi and Irish republicans, a comparison with another Buddhist society would be nice!
The data I collected from interviews with #Burmese activists and ex-prisoners, and colonial records, point to similar patterns in the 1920s-1930s, mid-1950s, the Coco Islands strikes of 1969-71, the 1974-76 upheavals, in 1988 & since the 2021 coup. Free download doi.org/10.1177/18681034251363997 5/5
Rejecting ‘fast-to-death’ forms of hunger strikes, some #Burmese dissidents have instead performed short-term, repeated, yet non-life-threatening fasts to pay tribute to martyrs, remember past contentious events, to sustain their movement and strengthen its collective identity 4/5
Hunger strikes occupy a prominent place in #Myanmar repertoire of contention, but remain a contested tactic, especially in a society where Buddhism is so prevalent, and where suicidal behaviours are often viewed unfavourably 3/5
Departing from classic views on hunger strikes, I conceptualise contentious acts of fasting as commemorative strategies and performances seeking to build solidarity and a collective memory of past protest actions and events in #Myanmar 2/5
Activists in #Myanmar have long deployed #HungerStrikes as tools of protest. But they have also fasted to commemorate past struggles and deceased comrades. My latest with the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is free and #OpenAccess at doi.org/10.1177/18681034251363997 1/5
Check out the piece Aung Kaung Myat and I developed on how adversarial frames of Rohingya were deployed in Myanmar’s parliamentary discourses, and this regardless of MPs party affiliation and ethnic background.
In Asian Ethnicity (Online First) www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Don't miss Nick Cheesman's new Cambridge Elements "Myanmar : A Political Lexicon". A short, but sharp, book that is free to download until late January here: www.cambridge.org/core/element...
Thanks!
My profile article with Social Movement Studies, which built on Tilly’s #repertoire concept to shed light on how #Myanmar anti-coup protesters mobilized is now part of a terrific special issue on hybrid protest logics in Asia | Do check here: doi.org/10.1080/1474...
